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VR and AR: The Business Reality

Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality are going to be useful for far more than just gaming. We explore the ways the technology will be used for training, marketing, product design, and much more.

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As the "mixed reality" concept of the metaverse gains steam, one of the first virtual reality (VR) worlds is making a significant comeback thanks to a new investment.

On Thursday, High Fidelity announced an investment in Linden Research, Inc. (Linden Lab) to scale Second Life's popular virtual world further. Philip Rosedale, the founder of both companies who is considered a metaverse pioneer, said he would be rejoining Second Life as a strategic advisor to aid in the expansion.

"No one has come close to building a virtual world like Second Life," Rosedale said in a statement. "Second Life has managed to create both a positive, enriching experience for its residents -- with room for millions more to join -- and built a thriving subscription-based business at the same time. Virtual worlds don't need to be dystopias."

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High Fidelity's investment into Second Life includes a cash investment and distributed computing patents. Rosedale toldCNETin an interview that two of the patents would be "decentralized environment patents."

Second Life has been around since 2003 and peaked in 2007 with 1.1 million active monthly users. However, its user numbers have recently begun to grow again, and the virtual world is approaching 1 million monthly active users, according to a Linden Lab spokesperson.

Thanks tothe COVID-19 pandemic, the platform saw a significant growth spurt and people spending more time at home, especially in its virtual economy. The spokesperson toldZDNet that the platform has an annual gross domestic product (GDP) of$650 million and that more than$80 million was paid to Residents in 2020 for a variety of virtual goods and services. Overall, the virtual space saw about a 30-40% increase in GDP and about a 20% increase in concurrency since the pandemic's start.

While the metaverse itself is nothing new and was coined by the author by Neal Stephenson in the 1992 science fiction novelSnow Crash, the metaverse has seen a recent resurgence. In particular, Big Tech companies like Meta (formerly Facebook) are proposing the metaverse to be a place where people virtually interact with each other using VR and augmented reality (AR) tools.

However, what's different about Second Life compared to the "new" metaverse Meta is trying to create is that it uses a 3D browsing software called SL Viewer rather than only requiring a VR headset. Rosedale toldCNETthat he does not see Second Life moving solely onto a headset until better hardware arrives and that the virtual world serves much better as a "VR-optional" platform. 

AR + VR

I tried Meta's Quest 3 VR headset and the mixed reality experience was next levelThese new AR smartglasses bet big on audio and ChatGPT and start at$199This ultraportable VR headset gave me a taste of Vision Pro at a fraction of the costI tried Apple Vision Pro and it's far ahead of where I expectedThe best VR headsets for gaming, work, and beyond

• I tried Meta's Quest 3 VR headset and the mixed reality experience was next level
• These new AR smartglasses bet big on audio and ChatGPT and start at$199
• This ultraportable VR headset gave me a taste of Vision Pro at a fraction of the cost
• I tried Apple Vision Pro and it's far ahead of where I expected
• The best VR headsets for gaming, work, and beyond